Mary Dejevsky’s sees double standards in the government’s proposals to deal with British Islamic State jihadis (May’s short memory, 25 August). But she sets up straw men as examples: there is no proposal to punish people just for travelling to Syria or Iraq, nor any presumption that those who do are jihadis. Even if, as she suggests, we are responsible for allowing extremism to fester, does that imply we should not react to the threat posed by these individuals’ return? Should we give murderers a pass for allowing them to get riled up in the UK?

Nor is it fair to suggest that the government tars all British Muslims with this brush. I can’t believe I’m defending this government. Let’s criticise it for its legion failings; making up new ones seems redundant. Paul SmithLondon

• Nobody has ever given an explanation of the difference between the “moderate” groups fighting in Syria and the “extremist” groups. Could anyone suggest which of the republican and loyalist terrorist groups fighting in Northern Ireland were “moderate” and which were “extremist”? But the moderate/extremist argument is used to justify the funding of terrorists because “we can’t stand back and allow these extremists to take over” type of argument. So we then support the Nato bombing of Libya that murdered thousands of civilians and levelled the city of Sirte in 2011, or the training and arming of the “moderate” groups who explode car bombs outside hospitals because allegedly the Syrian army were occupying the buildings.Louis ShawcrossHillsborough, County Down

• Your editorial (Lessons of failure, 25 August) eloquently catalogues the catastrophic consequences of successive governments’ interference in foreign conflicts, particularly those in the Middle East and north Africa. Well-intentioned but simplistic actions are usurped by power-hungry ideologues who readily recruit rudderless youth to be their cannon fodder. The editorial ends with a quote from Tony Blair that we would do well to restrict our actions to “what works”. Blair’s record in the Middle East is not a shining example and the question remains: what does work and how good is the supporting evidence?Michael KettlewellOver Norton, Oxfordshire

• Under no circumstances should British Isis fighters have their citizenship removed (Report, 25 August). How do they differ in law from any other British mercenaries, such as those who fought for Ian Smith? Given the choice of a life of pointless harassment by jobcentres and a misguided but apparently “noble cause” in Iraq, it seems a no-brainer to me.Ken BaldryLondon

• To bar returning jihadis from entering Britain by revoking their passports is analogous to fly-tipping: refusing to deal with our own rubbish, not caring who is left with that unpleasant and potentially expensive task. That is why the EU is right to legislate against it in the interests of the community at large.Herbert MunkCoventry

• The killing of James Foley was without doubt appalling and reprehensible. But what exactly are we supposed to find so horrendous that a coalition of western forces should descend upon the Middle East with the unattainable objective of restoring some kind of order acceptable to western interests?

Perhaps then it is the killing of innocent journalists that is meant to provoke us into supporting military action? Hardly that either, since, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, US forces in Iraq killed 13 journalists in 2003-05 alone in ways that are thought to be non-accidental. I don’t recall any objections from Tony Blair.

The truth is we are being led into supporting another war; either for unstated reasons relating to oil and nefarious geostrategy, or in response to the inane call of the “something has to be done” brigade. The intervention being proposed ought to be as unpopular as the one that began in 2003, which lies at the root of the present predicament.Steve CoxYork

• Why does “humanitarian aid” by Russia (Report, 23 August), albeit uninvited by Ukraine , draw “swift condemnation from US and European countries”, while the bombing of Isis-controlled Syria is contemplated by the US and other European countries without the need to even speak to the Syrian head of state?Richard BullWoodbridge, Suffolk